


Dance in Shadows

by Selenicereus



Category: Leverage, White Collar
Genre: Canon Relationships, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Slow Build, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 16:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 13,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5877532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selenicereus/pseuds/Selenicereus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal had worked hard this past year to create a new life, one that had a lot less shadows to hide in. It was a life that, he hoped, would have made Peter proud of him. Of course he still had that itch, the thrill of the con, which he couldn’t quite shake completely. And now here was Sophie, a friend from his old life, asking for help which he couldn’t turn down and which would definitely be a dance on the wrong side of the law.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place after the season finales for both White Collar and Leverage, and the time lines for both line up with the time lines of the air dates for each show.

The power was out, again. Neal flipped the switch a few more times as he toes of his shoes. A storm had caused a power outage at the museum earlier that day but of course their backup generator came on after fifteen seconds and guests hardly paused in their tours. Neal’s apartment wasn’t the museum, there was no backup generator to flip on and compensate until the city electrical grid was fixed. 

Closing the door behind him Neal shut out the most of the noise of the city. He hung his coat on the hook by the door and took a few steps so that he wasn’t standing in the narrow entry way. 

His apartment wasn’t as big as his room at June’s house had been but it was a fair amount of space for an apartment in Paris. The entry way opened up to the living room which was the center of the space. To the back was the kitchen divided by a half walk that Neal had converted into a bar by placing a few stools along the counter and removing the wall and leaving the supports and widening the counter top. 

On the west wall of the living room were two doors. The first lead to the bathroom, the second was the spare bedroom which acted as Neal’s studio. Across the room on the east wall there were a set of folding doors that stood open to show the small closet space. And next to the closet was the door to Neal’s bedroom, which he normally kept closed.

Through the dim light coming through the kitchen windows Neal could just make out the open door of his bedroom. He stopped and listened. He could still faintly hear the noise of the city and his neighbors that were still awake at this time of night (and given it was Friday night that was a lot of people), but over that he could make out a low creak as someone shifted their position on the chair Neal had next to his bed. 

He looked around for a weapon and pulled an umbrella out of the closet without having to shift too much. Silently he cursed the creaky floor board he knew were between the entry and his bed room. When he had bought the apartment he thought it would be useful to give him warning if someone broke in, but now it would only reveal his presence to whoever was already here. 

As he debated the best course of action (confronting whoever was here, or leaving to get help) he heard the person shift again this time accompanied by a sigh.

“Don’t keep me waiting Neal, it’s rude.”

At the voice Neal smiled and lowered the umbrella, leaning it against the couch and crossed the last few steps to stand in the door way. 

The chair had been moved so it sat under the light coming in through the window and back lit the woman sitting there. Neal knew it was a strategic move so his face was easy to read and her face, covered in shadows, gave nothing away.

“Charlotte,” Neal smiled, “it’s been a while. I heard you had moved to America and took up acting.”

“Oh that was ages ago, I’ve moved on. Bigger and brighter and all that.” She stood up and walked over to Neal’s dresser. She fingered through a few of the letters there without reading them. “I was hoping you might help me with a problem, but it looks like you’ve gone straight.”

“Appearances can be deceiving, you know that.” Neal smiled as Charlotte picked up a newspaper clipping.

“I saw that the Louvre was getting a security upgrade, and a new consultant was brought in to help with the project.” She turned and the light caught her face so Neal could see her smile. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you, because that information would sell really well with our old friends.”

Neal stepped forward and took the article from her. “No comment. Besides the old Neal Caffrey died in New York over a year ago.”

“Of course, I was at the funeral, quaint little event, and well financed. You must have dropped quite a bit for all the flowers alone.”

Neal just smiled. He had covered most of the cost but June had spent quite a bit on the nonessentials which Neal had left out. She had handpicked most of the flowers with El’s help. 

“Funerals are always so telling. I attended my own a few years ago, I expected a bigger turn out.” She looked pointedly at Neal.

“I would have been there if I could but I was held up, and the letter came late.”

“Well c’est la vie.”

Neal crossed his arms. “Charlotte?”

“Oh it’s Sophie now. I haven’t been Charlotte in ages.”

“Sophie then, what are you doing here?” Neal thought a moment then added. “Did you turn off my power?”

“Neal always so suspicious, no I didn’t turn off your power, but it did help set the mood don’t you think.”

“And the mood would be a clandestine meeting so you could ask for my help.” Neal pulled his tie off and sat on the bed. “But you still haven’t told me what the problem is.”

Sophie took up her seat in the chair again. “Well this isn’t exactly easy for me you know. Asking for help isn’t something I’m used to doing.”

“Yet here you are, and you know I’ll say yes because I owe you.” Sophie had been key in helping Neal get out of America and to Paris under the radar. She had even set him up with his new apartment (which is of course how she had found him).

“Straight to it then.” Sophie ran her hands over her skirt to get out some of the wrinkles. “I have a team now, have had for a few years, and they got themselves in a bit of a tight spot. I was hoping you would help me get them out safely.”

Neal sighed. He had worked hard this past year to create a new life, one that had a lot less shadows to hide in. It was a life that, he hoped, would have made Peter proud of him. Of course he still had that itch, the thrill of the con, which he couldn’t quite shake completely. And now here was Sophie, asking for help which he couldn’t turn down and which would definitely be a dance on the wrong side of the law.

“Alright,” Neal smiled. “Lay it out for me.”


	2. Chapter 2

Hardison had found the mark: a charitable foundation called Joining Hands that connected third world relief centers with first world resources and sponsors. They found companies or wealthy sponsors that had the supplies that third world countries needed but didn’t have the means to transport in bulk; that’s where Joining Hands came in.

A minister in Somalia who had been working with Joining Hands for a year had received a letter from one of their sponsors. Normally all letters were received through Joining Hands but this one had come directly from the sender and it detailed the supplies that were meant to be sent to Somalia. The minister hand started to look into things but as soon as he asked Joining Hands for information he had been shut out. Then a week later he had been investigated for fraud and had been forced to shut down his relief center.

The minister had a brother in the Oregon that he went to stay with and soon enough he found Leverage Consulting & Associates. The team had done some preliminary research then packed up and went to Joining Hands headquarters.

Everything went according to plan at first. Hardison had started working as an IT man for Joining Hands while Eliot and Parker posed as a wealthy couple looking to help send relief funds. It had looked like they would be in and out in a few days: their computer security was “prehistoric” according to Hardison who had quickly found a back door through their fire walls and started collecting data. Eliot and Parker were working the mark, the CEO of Joining Hands, into a frenzy over how many questions and how particular they were about the details of their donation; they had even switched out his sleeping pills with caffeine pills.

Then Joining Hands’ silent partners had shown up and everything had fallen apart.

“Turns out Joining Hands is partnered with the French mob. I mean who even knew France had a mob?” Sophie asked Neal. “Anyway, the mob shows up and they make Eliot. He’s apparently had dealings with them before. So Parker and Eliot were grabbed and Hardison called me for help, but that was two days ago and when we went to take a look it seems he’s been grabbed as well.”

“We?” Neal asked, never one to miss details.

Sophie smiled her best con-winning smile. “Oh, didn’t I say, I have a partner. He’s scouting out Joining Hands now and working on finding where our team is being held.”

Neal frowned slightly.

Sophie stalled Neal for a moment. “Oh relax Neal, I trust him. He’s actually the one who suggested we needed your help.”

Neal’s frown deepened, only a handful of people knew he wasn’t dead and buried in New York. “Well I must say I’m intrigued. Not only does Sophie Deveraux trust someone, but that person also suggested enlisting the help of a dead con man.”

“You’re a little wanker, Neal Caffrey. I never told you my last name.”

“Yes, well, of course I did my research on you when we first met. I don’t work with strangers, which leads me back to this partner of yours. Anything we plan to get your team back is going to require three people but I need to know I can trust the people I’m working with.”

Sophie debated making more of a huff but knew she needed to get things moving along. “Relax Neal, I trust him completely, and you can too. In fact, he told me that your two have crossed paths before: Milan back in 2002.”

It only took Neal a moment to figure out who Sophie was suggesting. “Nathan Ford.”

Sophie smiled.

“I heard that Nate had gotten out of the insurance recovery game. Don’t tell me you got him running with you now.”

Sophie laughed, “I don’t believe anyone could get that man to do anything he didn’t want to. No, he asked me to join his team a few years back, they’re the ones that need our help now.”

“Nate Ford put the crew together? I thought it was odd that Parker was on a team. She doesn’t play well with anyone last time I checked. Eliot Spencer is almost legendary for the fact that he works alone and always delivers. I don’t know Hardison other than by reputation but I thought most computer hackers were solitary types. And most surprising is you, Sophie, you use partners on occasion when the job requires it but you never stay in one spot long enough to form a crew.”

“Crew is such a crude word, I prefer team. And you should know eight years is a long time for things to change, just look at where you are now.”

Neal had to agree, eight years ago he had still been in prison dreaming of the life he would have with Kate once he got out, never guessing he would join the FBI. “Well they say ‘the only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.’”

“I’ve never heard that before, who said that?” Sophie asked.

“Alan Watts, Mozzie liked to quote him after a few glasses of wine. Anyway, I’m getting us off topic again. So where do we begin?”

“Nate has a plan to get them and us out safely. He’s setting things in motion even as we speak. If we leave tonight we can meet up with Nate by morning. If all goes well we’ll all be on our way home for dinner tomorrow.”

“Where are we meeting with Nate?”

“Joining Hands’ headquarters is in Marseille.”

“It’s at least a seven hour drive to Marseille and I don’t have a car.” Neal said.

“We don’t need a car. I have a friend who owes me a favor and has a private jet. I asked him to chart a flight for tonight. We leave as soon as you’re ready.”

Neal smiled. “You seem to have everything worked out, so I guess I should pack a bag.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter goes a little quickly, I'm trying to get to the rest of the team (and hopefully my plot) as soon as I can. So sorry if it's a little rushed.

The power came back on as Neal  pulled out his go bag from  behind a false panel  in the molding of the arch above his bedroom door (just because he was out of the game didn’t mean he would be caught unaware if something happened). He unplugged his appliances in the kitchen and (as Sophie waited in his bedroom) checked a few of his other stashes to make sure they were secure. When he was done he offered his arm and walked Sophie out. 

Out on the street a car and driver waited for them. None of them said a word as the driver opened the back door and let Sophie and Neal in. Soon they were on the highway driving south.

“Orly Airport.”

It wasn’t a question but Sophie answered anyway. “Manuel should have his jet charted and fueled by now; he has a lot of political pull when he chooses to use it. He’s a Duke from Portugal and quite a fine dancer when he tries. He’s a bit of a book worm so it’s almost impossible to get him to leave his villa. Oh, you should see it his favorite piece is a Jacques-Louis David, but there’s a Michelangelo that I’m in love with that’s in the garden.”

Sophie stopped as she noticed Neal’s grin.

“No,” she said, “not the Michelangelo?” Neal’s grin grew and Sophie thought for a moment, “You never… when were you in Portugal?”

“I may have stopped by on my way to Seville, or was it León?” Neal’s smile widened. “Anyway, I stopped in and visited Duke Manuel de Menezes and we got on rather well so he asked me to stay at his villa for a few weeks. Who do you think taught him to dance?”

“You little wanker, I had my eye on that Michelangelo.”

“Sorry, my dear, I guess you’ll just have to get the next one.”

Sophie was huffy for the rest of the ride to the airport. Once they arrived they stepped out to find Manuel talking with a member of the ground crew.

“Manuel,” Sophie smiled and waved.

Manuel rushed over anxiously. “Anja, lo siento, there is some difficulty.” then he saw Neal. “Michael, you are Anja’s cousin?”

Neal didn’t miss a beat. “Manuel my old friend, it’s been too long. My dear cousin Anja and I were just figuring out that we both knew you. What a small world we live in.”

“Sí, this is true. That two of my dear friends not only know each other but are family, this world is too small.” He gave Neal a hug.

“Manuel, you were a bit agitated a moment ago, is something wrong?” Sophie asked gently.

 “Sí, sí. The air control, they say there is trouble. A storm is coming in from the sea and they are going to ground flights.”

Neal and Sophie looked at the sky. There was a thick cloud cover but nothing more. Manuel saw their confusion and explained.

“I don’t mean not flights out of here, I mean no flights at Marseille. A storm came up from the sea and no flights are in or out along the coast.”

“What does your pilot think?” Neal asked.

Manuel looked confused. “My pilot?”

“You have spoken with your pilot about this haven’t you? As I recall he went to the Oxford Aviation Academy, best pilots in the world come out of that school. Let’s see what he has to say about the weather in Marseille.”

Manuel still looked worried so Sophie stepped in. “Please would you at least ask him Manuel, you know how important it is that we get to Marseille to meet our uncle tonight.”

Manuel straightened up, determined. “Of course, mi querida. I go speak with him now.”

Neal turned to Sophie once Manuel was gone. “What’s wrong with our uncle?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you in the car? We got word that our great uncle is unwell and he wishes to see us. We, of course, don’t know how serious it is so we are all the more anxious to see him. I was sure I mentioned it.” Sophie smiled.

Neal grinned. “Yes, I’m sure you said something about it between the dancing and the Michelangelo.”

Sophie glared at him, which only made Neal smile more.

“Well anyway, it looks like we might actually get to see our dear uncle tonight.” Neal said and gestured to Manuel who was walking towards them.

“Come, Tomas says he can fly us, no problem.”

Neal went to grab his bag then followed Sophie and Manuel, who were arm in arm, to the jet.

They settled in and soon were at cruising altitude. A stewardess came around with champagne as Neal invited Manuel to a chess game. Sophie watched the game and quickly realized Neal was purposely missing holes in Manuel’s defense so the game would last longer. Finally Manuel knocked over his king and stood up.

“I must speak to Tomas.” Manuel made his way to the cockpit.

“So,” Neal turned to Sophie, “Anything else you can tell me about this daring rescue plan?”

Sophie shrugged elaborately. “Nate is figuring out the details, but the basics are we infiltrate Joining Hands headquarters during their annual charity ball. Then we by-pass security get to the basement and get my team out.”

“And the ball is?”

Sophie looked at her watch. “They kick things off with a lunch reception in just about 12 hours.”

Neal looked at his watch, it had just turned twelve, midnight. He sighed, stood up and stretched. “It’s late and there’s still time before we land. I’m going to try to sleep. If the situation is as time sensitive as you say I expect we won’t get much sleep anytime soon.”

Sophie watched Neal make his way to one of the back seats and recline it. She waited but to all appearances he dosed off immediately. A moment later Manuel returned and Sophie joined him for more champagne.


	4. Chapter 4

Turbulence woke Neal an hour later. He sat up and looked around as the small jet bounced.

“It’s alright.” Sophie called.

She was sitting in the seat across the aisle with Manuel. They were both buckled in but didn’t appear alarmed.

“We are just over Marseille now.” Manuel said. “You slept thought the flight.”

“Oh.” Neal put his seat upright. “Doesn’t look like I missed anything.”

“No, we only hit the storm ten minutes ago. Tomas says it wasn’t moving as fast as predicted so landing should be easy, if a little bumpy.” Manuel explained.

The jet bounced again and Neal grabbed his arm rest but smiled when he saw Sophie’s white knuckled grip on her own. Manuel was happily looking out the window at the storm clouds and rain.

 “We have clearance from Ground Control and will be landing in a moment. Please take a seat and buckle in.” Tomas’s voice came on over the intercom.

The landing was a little rough, the wind trying it’s best to blow the small plane around, but so they were on the ground taxiing to a gate. Rain pelted them, the wind making it fall at a sharp angle so they held their umbrellas mostly in front of them to fend off the rain and wind. It was a quick walk to the hanger which opened its doors as they approached, and there, standing in the doorway was Nathen Ford.

“Anja,” Nate called as he closed the door behind them. “I was worried you wouldn’t make it before they closed the airport, but it looks like you’re just in time. And I see you found-“

“Michael.” Sophie interrupted quickly taking his arm and kissing his cheek. “Yes, I did. And wouldn’t you know, he’s old friends with Manuel.”

“Ah,” Nate looked between Neal and Manuel. “Then it looks like we don’t need to worry about introductions, and a good thing, you’re uncle isn’t doing at all well, we have no time to waste.”

“And this is where I take my leave.” Manuel bowed to them all. “I have business of my own to take care of in Marseille. Please, let me know if you need me again mi querida.” He took Sophie’s hand and gave it a kiss. “I’m always at your disposal.”

“Thank you Manuel.” Sophie smiled.

Nate led the way to a car in silence, and drove through the rain away from the airport.

“We have a problem.” Nate broke the silence. “Because of the storm Joining Hands is moving the reception to from the gardens to the ball room.”

Neal frowned. “How does that affect our plan?”

“We had been planning on using the reception time as our escape because security would be focused outside on the guests and we’d have an easier time getting to the upper levels where we think they are holding our team.”

“Wait,” Neal held up a hand, “’Think’ as in you don’t know where your people are?”

Sophie chimed in “We know they are being held in the headquarters main building, the other buildings have too much civilian traffic for Joining Hands to keep them there without someone noticing.”

Nate nodded as he turned the car down a one way street. “And while Sophie was recruiting you from Paris, I got an email from Joining Hand’s main server.”

Sophie leaned forward from the back seat to try and read Nate’s face. “What did the email say?”

Nate raised one eyebrow. “Ah, something about the benefits of donating to Joining Hands and the work that they do to help third world countries.”

“So,” Neal smiled. “It was the message was the email it’s self not what it said.”

Nate nodded. “It had a very specific mailing address which I tracked back to the fourth floor of Joining Hands Headquarter building.”

“How did you trace the origin of the email?” Neal asked, as far as he knew Nate was good at computers but not that good.

“I didn’t have to,” Nate said. “As soon as I opened the message it back tracked for me.”

“Hardison.” Sophie said, sitting back against the seat.

Neal turned to look at her. She had a grin on her face that matched Nate’s.

“He must have set a bug with the message to it would activate when we opened the message.” Nate said.

“Okay,” Neal turned to Nate again. “So we know where they are. Do we know what’s on the fourth floor of Joining Hand’s headquarters?”

“R&D according to the blue prints we found.” Nate pulled the car over into a parking spot. He turned off the car, and the three of them stopped talking long enough to get up to the apartment where Nate and Sophie had been staying.

They were on the top floor and their windows faced, “Is that Joining Hands Headquarters?” Neal asked.

Sophie crossed to room to stand next to Neal in front of the windows. “We’ve been doing our research.” Was her answer.

Neal knew that meant checking security, counting guards and cameras, finding blind spots and every exit.  They would have ID-ed the security team, to find out what if there were any weak links and what kind of a set up they could expect. If Joining Hands was working with the mob they would have files on each member (or as many as they could get their hands on) and if they were expected to be at the reception or ball.

“They are adding extra security for the charity ball.” Nate said. He was across the room at a table looking over the various papers he had strewn about with a few computers that were in various stages of turning on. “And it looks like,” he trailed off as he typed something into one of the computers. “Yep,” Nate looked up at Sophie then met Neal’s eyes. “Hope you packed your dancing shoes, ‘casue we’re going to the ball.”


	5. Chapter 5

Hardison watched as Eliot paced the length of the room, cell… broom closet?

“Hey what would you guys call this?” the techy asked.

Parker looked up from where she was sitting and Eliot stopped pacing to stare at the nerd.

“You know.” Hardison continued. “It’s obviously a closet, or was before they emptied it. Now it’s acting like a prison cell to hold the three of us. But really it’s just a room right? So what should we call it?”

“Seriously?” Elliot stepped into Hardison’s space. “It doesn’t matter what we call it. We’re trapped here no matter what name you give it. We need to be figuring a way out. So can you just focus?”

“Yeah, but…” Hardison started.

“Focus!” Eliot roared at him.

“Alright. Don’t have to get all huffy about it. I was just asking a question and you go all…”

“Hardison.” Eliot warned.

“It’s a cell right?” Parked asked.

“See.” Hardison waved a hand at Parker. “She gets it. It’s just a question.”

“Three days!” Eliot roared. “Three days we’ve been caught and our best plan only ended up breaking Parker’s ankle.”

“It’s fine.” Parker said standing up. “I’m fine. Let’s try the air vent again. I think…”

 She put too much weight on her bad ankle and hissed. In an effort to get off her foot quickly she fell into Hardison. Luckily the nerd was already leaning against a wall so he caught her without tipping over himself.

“No Parker.” Hardison turned her so they were face to face. “The air vent worked. I got a message out to Sophie before they got us. We just have to hang tight for rescue to come.”

“Yeah, besides they probably sealed the vents large enough for us to use.” Eliot said. “Or at least put guards on them.”

“Okay,” Parker thought a moment then asked. “But why are we still here?”

“We just said, the escape didn’t work and we can’t plan another form in here because we don’t even have our coms.” Hardison said.

“Yeah, yeah, I got that. But why are we still _here_.” She waved her arms around the room. “Why haven’t they tortured us or killed us or moved us. They’re just keeping us here.”

Hardison looked confused. He looked to Eliot for an explanation and saw the grim expression of his friend. Arms crossed, brow furrowed, Eliot leaned against the opposite wall from Hardison looking as if he’d swallowed a lemon.

“Uh-no, mmh.” Hardison shook his head vehemently. “Don’t you do that.”

“I’m not doing anything.”  Eliot said.

“No, but you’re about to say something really bad that I don’t want to hear. Don’t get all serious and dark on me.”

“You know why they haven’t done anything with us yet.” Parker said.

Eliot sighed, about to answer but Hardison interrupted him.

“No! You don’t know what they’re thinking. You just got some crazy idea because you recognized that crazy Frenchman.”

“Coronel Phillipe Legrand isn’t crazy, he’s ruthless but not crazy.”

Hardison watched as Eliot’s eyes focused on something far away that only he could see and knew the hitter was remembering something from his past.

“Crazy, ruthless, PMSing I don’t care.” Hardison said drawing his friend out of the memory. “I just want to get as far away from him as we can.”

“Hardison’s right.” Parker put in. she had resumed her seat on the floor. “We don’t know if Sophie even got our message and if she had Nate and Soph would have come up with an idea and sprung us by now.”

“No, they wouldn’t.” Eliot said almost to himself.

“What do you mean they wouldn’t?” Hardison crossed his arms. “Of course Nate and Sophie would come to help us.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Eliot growled. “I know they would come for us, but think about it. This is Nate we’re talking about.”

Hardison looked blank, not understanding.

“Nate wouldn’t just come to get us out, he’d also be thinking about how to take down Joining Hands.” Eliot explained.

“Yeah,” Parker said, a glint in her eye. “He’s be doing his whole mind-trick-evil-plan thing figuring out how to take the bad guys.”

“Exactly,” Eliot nodded at Parker, “But usually he has the three of us he can use for the plan, this time it’s just him and Sophie.”

“So he’ll be looking for help.” Hardison finished.

They all nodded in agreement. Nate had always been best at using all their abilities to make a plan work so if he didn’t have them he would need a new crew to help save them.  They all thought of this, and started to think of who Nate might call in for help.

“Ohhh, maybe he’ll call Tara!” Parker looked between the boys and smiled at her idea.

“No, Tara is in Argentina.” Eliot said.

Hardison raised an eyebrow.

“Shut up.” Eliot growled.

“What about your friend?” Hardison asked Eliot, “The poker night guy with the serious aditude.”

“Shelley?” Eliot’s brow furrowed. “He’s… working.”

“What does that even mean?” Hardison threw up his hands.

Eliot glared at the hacker and they all were quiet as they thought about who else Nate could call on.

“What if it’s not Nate who makes the team?” The boys turned to look at Parker so she continued, “What if Sophie did her grafter thing and got a crew?”

They quieted down after that, knowing that whether it was Nate or Sophie someone would be on the way to rescue them and they had to be ready.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't had a chance to do any editing for this chapter whatsoever so I may end changing some things along the way. But it's been a while since I've updated so I didn't want to keep you all waiting. I hope you all enjoy!

Neal worked on the paper invitations as Sophie did a little more research into Joining Hands Ball. Nate had run out to get coffee and breakfast. They had stayed up through the night going over the details of the heist, which Nate had meticulously planned out. All that was left was for Neal to duplicate the invitations and for Sophie to hack into the Joining Hands server to get their names on the guest list.

“Damn it.” Sophie slammed her hands down on the key board as another security protocol blocked her access. “This is imposable; I don’t know how Hardison dose it. Everything I try gets blocked.”

“That’s because you’re a grifter and he’s a hacker. It’s like asking a poet to build the Taj Mahal.”

“Well it doesn’t matter, if we don’t get into their servers then we won’t get on the guest list and there will be no rescue.” Sophie huffed.

“So we get ourselves an architect. Or in this case a hacker.” Neal said.

“Hardison is the only hacker I trust, so unless you know a hacker who can get past this security in the next hour we’re ruined before we begin.” Sophie said turning to Neal.

Neal froze, his hands posed over the invitation he was creating. “I might know someone who can help us.”

“Might?” Sophie waited.

“A hacker I met working with Peter, called the Vulture.”

“I’ve heard of the Vulture, Hardison practically fan boys over him. He calls the Vulture a civic hero, some kind of computer Robin Hood.”

“Mozzie said something very similar when we first came across the Vulture.” Neal smiled but Sophie saw a shadow in his eyes.

“Dose Mozzie know you’re alive?”

“I sent him a card,” Neal smiled. “The queen of hearts actually.”

“But you haven’t actually talked to him.” Sophie read between the lines. “You cut all ties and think it’s easier to movie on without looking back.”

Neal didn’t say anything but he put down his tools and rubbed the ink off his hands.

“There was a time when I had to disappear leave my life behind. I thought it best to cut all ties and move on with my life. But my team kept calling me, asking for help when they were in trouble and I realized something: they still needed me; and keeping my distance wasn’t helping anyone, it was hurting all of us.”

“You’re saying it hurts more to keep my distance then to let them back in.” Neal rubbed his eyes. “But I’m not keeping them out because I want to. If anyone knew I was still alive the Pink Panthers would come after me, come after my friends to get to me. Being ‘dead’ is the safest thing for everyone.”

“Neal, the Panthers are all in prison. There’s no one left for you to hide from. Right now, your life in Paris, is only half a life. You have a job and a house, but you need people, friends. No one can make it through life alone.”

They were quiet for a moment both thinking, and that was the moment that Nate came back with coffee. He took a few steps into the room before he noticed the tension in the room.

“Everything okay?” Nate asked handing out coffee.

“We need another person.” Sophie said. “I can’t hack into Joining Hands server.”

“We don’t have time to bring in another person.” Nate said.

“No,” Sophie countered. “We don’t have time to bring someone else to Marseille, but a hacker doesn’t need to be in the same country to access the network.”

“And you have a hacker in mind.” Nate said.

“The Vulture.” Neal said.

“You know the Vulture?” Nate raised an eyebrow.

“I know how to get in contact.” Neal hedged

“Do you think the Vulture will help?”

“Only one way to find out.” Neal pulled a phone from his pocket.

 He hesitated before he dialed. As the call connected and started ringing Neal stood up and started pacing. Sophie and Nate watched from across the room.

After four rings someone answered. “Don’t try tracing this call, you’ll never connect anything to me.”

“Mozzie, relax I’m not a Fed anymore.” Neal’s voice was strained but he was trying to sound casual.

There was silence for a moment before Mozzie responded. “A voice from beyond the grave is worse than a Fed.”

“It’s nice to hear your voice too Moz.” Neal glanced at Sophie. “Listen I need a favor.”

“Oh I see how it is. You only call me when it’s useful for you, otherwise I’m second fiddle so why trust me with any secrets.”

“Moz, I did it to protect you. I couldn’t tell you about it because if you knew Peter would have figured it out. Everyone needed to think I was dead otherwise the Panthers would have found out.” Neal tied to bring the topic back on track. “Look there’s not time to do this now I need your help.”

“No time? No time! It’s been a year and you don’t have time?” Mozzie raved.

“I’m working on something, it’s time sensitive, I only have an hour and I can’t do this without you.”

Mozzie thought it over a moment before answering. “I’m listening.”

“I need to get on a guest list but can’t hack past the firewalls.”

“I can try, but I’d need more time than an hour.”

“That’s why you need to call in some help.” Neal smiled and looked at Sophie as he continued. “Do you still have Sally’s number.”

Nate turned to Sophie and mouthed 'Sally?' Sophie shrugged and turned back to Neal.

“You know I never forget anything. Oh I see, you want Sally and I to work together to hack in.” Mozzie said.

“Do you think you two can do it?” Neal asked.

“Do you even need to ask. Send me everything I need to know and Sally and I will have you in within the hour.”

“I’ll email the information now. And Moz, thank you.” Neal hung up and turned to Nate and Sophie. “We’re set.”


	7. Chapter 7

An hour later Neal and Nate walked up the steps to the Joining Hands ball with Sophie between them. Her gold dress off set their tuxes. Nate was wearing classic black two piece, but Neal had gone for a more daring dark blue three piece suit with pinstripe on the vest.

Other guests were rushing to the doors with their umbrellas braced against the wind.

“Any word from Moz yet?” Nate asked.

“He’ll come through.” Neal assured them.

“We don’t have time to wait for him to come through. If our names haven’t been added to the list then these invitations are pointless.” Nate said.

“Boys, it’s time to stop fighting each other and start trusting. We each have a part to play and we don’t have time to waste.” Sophie said.

They reached the doors just then so their banter was cut short.  Nate and Neal both opened the doors and let Sophie in. There were a few guests ahead of them waiting to have their invitations checked. Pulling out his phone Neal checked but there were no new messages.

“Now or never Moz.” Neal muttered to himself.

The couple in front of them moved through to the party and Nate handed over the forged invitations Neal had made overnight. The doormen looked at the names on the invitations and typed them into the tablet he had with him. Neal held his breath as the doorman waited for the list to find their names.

Nate couldn’t help but fidget, clenching and unclenching his fist.

“Welcome to Joining Hand’s Benefit.” The doorman said passing the invitations back to Nate.” There are refreshments in the main hall.”

“Thank you, very much.” Neal said.

As they walked away Neal said “Told you Moz would come through.”

But Nate wasn’t impressed. “Don’t get cocky now. That was the easy part.”

Neal opened him mouth to rebuke but his phone buzzed. Looking at the message he smiled.

_Your Welcome Mon Ami. –M_

He typed out a quick response then pocketed his phone as the trio walked into the reception hall. The hall was crowded and Neal could catch a dozen different conversations from where he stood. There were three types of people in the room. First of course were the guests, all resplendent with the women in their best ball gowns and the men in million dollar tuxes. Group two was the waiters. They stood out in their white blouses as they walked around the room with trays of wine and hors d’oeuvers. The final group was the most interesting. At every doorway there were at least two men in business suits. Their attention was on the crowd and the poorly trimmed suits couldn’t quite hide the shape of their side arms.

“They stick out like a cat at a dog park.” Sophie muttered as she accepted a glace of wine from a passing waiter.

“Only these cats are meaner and have sharper claws then any of the dogs.” Neal answered.

“Over my right shoulder,” Nate said drawing the attention of the other thieves. “There’s a door with no _cats_ watching it.”

“It’s an inner wall so it has to lead to a room, question is what would they leave unattended.” Sophie said taking a sip from her wine.

“Isn’t that a little obvious?” Neal said, his eyes on the crowd.

Nate and Sophie turned to the con-man. Neal almost laughed at their confusion, although he thought Nate was a little miffed at not being the smartest guy in the group. Instead of answering them our right Neal stopped the nearest waiter.

“ _Excuse me miss_.” Neal asked in Italian. “ _But could you direct me to the restrooms_.”

Nate rolled his eyes as the waiter pointed out the door they had been talking about. Neal thanked her and she moved on through the crowd.

“That’s not good.” Nate said as Neal turned back to them.

“What do you mean?” Neal was confused at Nate’s response.

“It means all our information was wrong.” Nate explained. “The maps we had showed that door leading to a banquet hall.”

“If that was wrong, then we can’t rely on any of the other blue prints to be accurate.” Sophie chimed in.

“So the fourth floor where your team is could be R&D or it could be executive offices.” Neal caught on, but shook his head. “It doesn’t change anything.”

Nate nodded his agreement. “Our plan still works at its core; we’ll just have to ad lib any obstacles that crop up along the way.”

“In that case,” Sophie said, finishing off her wine glass. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

She broke off from their group and started working her way through the crowd. Neal smiled and patted Nate on the shoulder, “Good luck.” He muttered as he also dissolved into the crowd, moving as seamlessness as Sophie had through the currents of moving bodies.

Nate ran a hand through his hair, musing it up a little, then snatched a wine glass from a waiter. Shambling through the crowd he bumped into a few guest and apologized in slurred Italian. The guards all around the room started to take notice of this show but they were well trained and didn’t let it distract them for long. Nate caught a glimpse of gold by one of the door guards and decided to turn up the charade.

A few feet ahead of him a waiter offered the hors d’oeuvers on his tray to a group of women. The waiter was chatting with the women and had his back to Nate who fumbled over his own feet and collided into the back of the waiter. Both of them fell, the tray of food and Nate’s wind glass clattering to the ground with the two men.

The whole ball room went quite as everyone turned to see what had happened.

“Sir, stai bene?” The waiter asked. “Lascia che ti aiuti.”

Nate brushed off the waiter who was trying to help him up. “Get off me. I’m fine.” Nate drawled.  “I’m fine.”

“Sir, allow me to help.” The waiter said in accented English.

“I don’t need help.” Nate insisted, pushing the man away. “I’m not drunk.”

By now the crowd was muttering about the scene. A few guards stepped forward to take charge of the situation.

“Sir, please come with us.” One of the guards said, pulling Nate to his feet.

“Hey, this is a party right. I’m just enjoying the party, no need to get upset.” Nate tried to pull out of the guard’s grip.

Another guard stepped forward to take hold of Nate’s other arm. “Please follow us sir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't actually know anything about the Italian language I just googled what I wanted to be said. If anyone notices an error please let me know.


	8. Chapter 8

Nate was pulled along by the two guards as the waiter followed behind them speaking in fast Italian to a third guard that was accompanying them. The group made their way through one of the side doors and through a hall way. Nate kept up his mindless chatter, insisting that he was fine, until they finally came to a room that looked like a staff break room.

The waiter was still talking to one of the guards making gestures at Nate and then back down the hallway. The guard must have finally given his consent to whatever the waiter was saying because the man rushed off.

“Hey, where’s he going?” Nate asked. “You guys should be mad at him, he bumped into me and made a mess of everything.”

The guards ignored Nate and moved to talk on one side of the room. After a few moments the waiter came back in with a tray, he gave Nate a glass of water before turning to offer the rest of his drinks to the guards. Nate’s Italian was rusty but he managed well enough to understand the exchange the waiter had with the guards.

_“Would you care for a drink.”_ the waiter offered.

“ _Not now_.” One of the guards responded. “ _You should go back to the reception._ ”

“ _It’s just soda water._ ” The waiter informed them.

“ _We’re stuck at this banquet until the boss finishes his business_.” Another guard chimed in. “ _I don’t care what you do but I’m having a drink_.”

Soon all three guards had drinks and the waiter left the room. Nate watched as each of the guards drank their fill and passed out. Once all three guards were sleeping on the floor the waiter come back in. the waiter looked at the three guards on the floor then turned to Nate.

“What did you put in their drinks?” Nate asked.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Neal answered. “Sophie said it would work fast.”

Neal had done yet another costume change, this time out of his waiter’s white and re-donned his suit.

“I didn’t realize how good you Italian was.” Nate said getting up. “I could only keep up with about half of what you were saying.”

Nate knelt next to one of the sleeping guards and took their radios; he handed one off to Neal and pocketed one for himself, the last one would be for Sophie. Then they made their way out into the hall way and found Sophie waiting got them.

“What took you boys so long.” She asked.

“Had to lose a few tails before we could join you.” Neal answered.

“You have an answer for everything.” Sophie led the way down the hall.

“Only things that I have answers for.” Neal grinned when Sophie shot a glare over her shoulder.

“If you two are done with the one-up-man ship let’s get back to the task at hand.” Nate chimed in before Sophie could respond. He handed her the last radio.

“What’s this for?” Sophie asked.

“Not sure yet.” Nate answered. “Just hold onto it in case we need them later.”

“The guards were talking about taking a shipment out after the ball tonight.” Neal said. “They were very talkative once they thought you didn’t understand Italian.”

“Yeah, I heard them give a time and a name,” Nate said. “But I didn’t realize what they meant.”

“I think the mob is planning on taking your team out tonight.” Neal said. “And I don’t think they plan on playing nice when they do.”

“Alright, we stick to plan and we’ll all be out before they know what’s happened.” Sophie said.

They had reached the end of the hallway. And Nate and Sophie stared down different corridors ready to go ahead with the plan.

“Wait.” Neal called them back. “If the floor plan can’t be trusted how are we supposed to know if we’re heading to our right locations?”

“We won’t.” Nate said. “Like we said earlier we’ll improvise. If you end up at the wrong location figure out how to make it work. If you end up where one of us is supposed to be then just take over our task.”

“Too many things are going wrong.” Neal said.

“Nothing ever goes exactly to plan, and if it ever did it would be a trap.” Sophie said.

“We’re already behind schedule.” Nate glanced at his watch. “try to make up the time.”

And with that they split up, each taking a different corridor.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nate, Neal, and Sophie start exploring the building, what could possibly go wrong...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I took so long posting this chapter. I started to mix up the time line so things got a little wibbly-wobbly and I spent way too much time trying to straighten it out. That being said I'm going to jump POV a lot over the next few chapters (in a vain attempt to keep the time line coherent).

Nate’s hallway was filled with empty offices. He checked each one but they were all empty and dark, everyone had the day off for the banquet apparently. At the end of the row of offices the hall spit in two directions. After a brief hesitation Nate went left. He found a broom closet, a filing room, then the third door stopped him with a lock.

It was the first door he’d come to that was locked, which had to mean that whatever was behind it was important, so he pulled out his lock pick set. The set had been a birthday gift from Parker a few years ago. Each of the tools were some kind of strong plastic so that they could get through a metal detector but were still strong enough so they wouldn’t break trying to open a lock. Nate had taken the extra precaution of putting them in a fake cigarette box so that security wouldn’t find it if they checked him.

As he set to work picking the lock he decided to check in with Neal and Sophie to see who they were doing.

“Status.” Nate asked quietly in case someone was nearby, not that he’d run into anyone since leaving the ball room.

Sophie answered first. “Nothing yet.”

“Same here.” Neal reported. “A bunch of empty offices. Moved on to the second floor.”

“Don’t get turned around.” Nate said. “We may have to bug out of here fast.”

Neal scoffed. “This isn’t my first rodeo.”

Before Nate could retort Sophie spoke up. “I have company, I can hear voices through the door ahead of me.”

Nate’s hand froze even as he heard the lock click over.

*

Neal liked to work in silence. As he moved though the building he kept a mental map of each room, noting anything that might be helpful later. There hadn’t been much on the first floor but on the second floor he found a small kitchen set up as a break room for the offices around it. Kitchens always had useful equipment. At the end of the hall there were conference rooms with floor to ceiling window that looked out over the courtyard.

Nate’s voice broke Neal’s concentration and he stopped to check that there was no one around before he answered. When Nate told him not to get lost Neal had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. As if he hadn’t spent half his life casing out buildings so he would always know the fasted escape route.  “This isn’t my first rodeo.” So much for not resisting the urge to roll his eyes when he verbally attacked Nate with sarcasm.

“I have company, I can hear voices through the door ahead of me.” Sophie said, stopping Neal from  further rebuttal.

Neal quieted, knowing that even though Sophie hadn’t said it out right, she was asking for them to be quiet so she could focus on the situation before her. When speaking with other cons there was a layer of subtext. The subtext varied with each person, and it was easier to understand if you had worked with someone before, as Neal had worked with Sophie. So, he knew she would let them know what was going on or if she needed help, but most likely she could handle herself and grift her way out of any trouble she found herself in.

He let silence fall again and resumed search the rooms. They had agreed that he would find the security room and take out the computers, erasing any evidence of them being there. But once they realized the blue prints were useless it was anyone’s guess where the control room for the security system would be. The now useless schematics had put the room on the far side of the third floor, but Neal had decided to take it one room at a time.

He came upon a row of rooms that were locked, but windows in the doors let him see that they were simply more offices, probably of higher ups that wanted to keep their files secure. He forced the locks on a few doors but left most locked. It was unlikely he would find anything he needed in those rooms.

At the end of the hall was another set of stairs that led to the third level and he took them. Even though the blue prints were out of date it was likely that he would find the security room in a similar location because it was easier to get as much power to a room where they already had the number of outlets then make a whole new room in a new location.

He was working open the first door he came upon on the third floor when he heard Nate over the coms.

“Crap. We have a problem.” Nate said.

“Same here.” Sophie said quietly.

The lock clicked over easily under Neal’s hand and he opened the door.

“Well,” Neal said looking into the room. “Not what I was expecting.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to look in and see what Sophie and Nate have gotten up to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that chapter got away from me. Not sure how that even happened but I like it. Also, sorry this is taking so long for me to post, and thank you even more for sticking with me.

Sophie was heading towards the front of the building so there was a bit of foot traffic as the occasional guest wondered the hall, a few stopping to ask where the restrooms were, or if she knew when food was being served.

“Seriously, do I look like the bloody wait staff?” She said to one gentleman who’d obviously spent too much time at the drink table.

Nate’s voice came over the coms and she quickly responded as the hall was empty for a moment. She knew that Nate was nerves because he’d never worked with Neal before and that he was really checking in on the newest member of the team (however temporary), rather than wondering what she was doing.

She could also hear the sarcasm dripping off Neal’s words so she decided to end things before the boys could start something. Once they quieted she smiled and continued walking.

Her goal was to find the team so she made her way up a few levels checking rooms as she went. Neal was in the west wing and Nate in the east leaving Sophie for the middle which was mostly executive offices. So, she shouldn’t have been surprised when she ran into someone in one of the offices.

What she wasn’t expecting was _who_ she ran into.

“I’m sorry, you can’t be in here Madame.”

“Monsieur Garnier, I’m so glad I found you.” Sophie beamed at the President of Joining Hands.

Gerard Garnier frowned at Sophie. “You have the better of me Madame…”

“du’Val. Cynthia du’Val with the Catholic Aid and Relief Foundation, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Sophie offered her hand.

Garnier took her hand and gently brushed her knuckles with a kiss. “The pleasure is all mine. I didn’t realize anyone from CARF was here today.”

“The arrangements were made last minute.” Sophie said smoothly. “And I honestly thought that the weather would cancel my flight but God made a way.”

“I’m pleased you were able to join us.” Garnier said. “But You should be down at the party.”

“Oh, of course, but should you be hiding away up here?” She asked. “After all you are the host, I’m sure I’m not the only one looking for you.”

“You’re right of course. I will be down in a moment, but first I must finish up some business.” Garnier shifted and for a moment Sophie could see into the room beyond him.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry.” Sophie said, directing her comment past Garnier. “I didn’t realize you were in a meeting.”

“Nonsense,” the gentleman behind Garnier stood up. “The lady is right we should be enjoying the party. Our business will keep until after.”

Garnier frowned but stepped aside to make introductions. “Madame du’Val, allow me to introduce one of my business partners, Coronel Phillipe Legrand.”

The gentleman stepped forward to take Sophie’s hand and give it a brief kiss. Sophie hid the shiver that ran down her spine. She’d heard stories of a Coronel Legrand who had been with the French army before some of his darker secrets came to light and he disappeared before his court martial, his story turning even darker from then on. She’d never see a picture of the man but she was sure that it would match the man before her now.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Madame.” The Coronel said.

“ _Crap, we have a problem.”_ Nate said through the ear bud.

“Same here.” Sophie said, smiling at the Coronel.

*

Nate wanted to ask Sophie what was going on but if she was talking her way out of a situation he didn’t want to say anything that would distract her. Waiting another moment, he listened to the conversation she was having, but it seemed benign so he tuned it out and pushed open the door he had just unlocked. The room as completely dark, but Nate could hear the soft hum of an engine or fan running. Feeling the wall around the door Nate found the light switch and flicked it on.

It was a computer room, or rather Nate thought the machines had some relation to computers, although he couldn’t see any screens or keypads or any of the things he normally associated with computers. But having spent enough time with Hardison Nate knew he was in the server room. Which was exactly where Neal needed to be.

Since Sophie, and Nate were probably the least knowledgeable about computers in their little trio, it had been decided that Neal would take care of the technology until they freed Hardison. Of course, even Neal had needed a little help, and thankfully Sophie still had one of Hardison’s thumb drives.

_“It’ll plant a virus that will crash any system short of a Steranko. At least that’s what Hardison said when he gave it to me.” Sophie said as she handed over the thumb drive to Neal._

_“So just find a port and this little guy does all the work. It sounds like I’ve got the easiest job.” Neal turned the thumb dive over to inspect it._

_“Don’t sell yourself short, that’s just.” Nate said. “You’re also our ticket through the door to begin with.”_

Of course, it was a totally different matter now that Nate was standing in Neal’s place without the thumb drive. What had been the easiest task now became an impossibility.

Nate walked around the room of severs looking for some sort of screen or access panel he could use. He was crouching down to look at the bottom rows of servers when he heard footsteps in the hallway. Moving quickly, he ran to turn of the light switch then duck back behind a row of servers. Between two of the shelves he can see the window set in the door, and as he watches he can see the silhouette of someone stop outside the door. Then the door knob turns.

“Crap.” Nate whispers into coms. “We have a problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just making things up, so I don't know if there really is an organization called the Catholic Aid and Relief Foundation, but it sounds like it could be real.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time no post... sorry that's entirely my fault life is crazy (as I'm sure you all know from experience). Anyway here's a little appeasement to tide you over until I decide to poke my head up and post again (*burrows back into den*).

As soon as the door opened Eliot swung a punch, ready to defend his team. He managed to stop his swing a few inches from the man’s face as he recognized who had opened the door.

“Neal Caffrey?”

“Well, not what I was expecting.” Neal said looking between Eliot and the fist a few inches in front of his face. “But I suppose I’m not who you were expecting either.”

Eliot lowered his guard. “Definitely the last person I was expecting.”

“I thought you were supposed to be dead.” Hardison said stepping forward.

“Pss, dead.” Parker said from her spot on the floor. “He’s been casing the Louver for the past six months.”

Neal stepped into the room and looked over Hardison’s shoulder to see Parker.

“I haven’t been casing it,” Neal said, “I’ve been working for them. Upgrading their security.”

“Right,” Parker smiled. “Upgrading their security so you know where their weaknesses are.”

 “I’m not….” Neal sighed, “Never mind. Look I’m here to get you out, except I was supposed to be the one taking care of the cameras and Sophie was supposed to be finding you three, so she had your coms and I have this.

Neal held up a flash drive.

“Hey,” Hardison snatched the drive from Neal. “Why do you have my hack-key?”

“Sophie gave it to me.” Neal explained. “Like I said I was supposed to be taking out the cameras.”

“So, if you’re here.” Parker thought out loud. “Then who is taking care of the computers?”

“Nate,” Neal tapped his ear. “He’s in the computer lab now but without this hack-key he’s not able to access the computers.”

“He doesn’t need the hack key.” Hardison said. “Does he have his phone on him?”

“Nate, you have your phone, right?” Neal asked his coms. He waited a moment for a response. “Yeah he has his phone.”

“Alright tell him-” Hardison started.

“No.” Neal held up a hand to forestall the hacker. “Just, here.”

Neal handed his come over to Hardison.

“Hey Nate,” Harrison smiled. “Okay, so…”

Eliot tuned out what the hacker was saying and focused on Neal. The last time he’d see the con man there had been a wall of glass between them. Neal had been sulking and frantic and Eliot… well he had said what the con man needed to hear no matter that it had hurt. They had parted on bad terms, but it didn’t stop Eliot from keeping tabs on the kid, and, unlike Hardison, Eliot had known Neal was hiding away in Paris.

He had read reports and news articles, that never named names but always had the subtle hint of Caffrey behind the scenes. And there had been a few favors he had called into actually get eyes on the kid on more than one occasion.  For the most part Neal had kept his nose clean and Eliot had kept his distance. So what had surprised Eliot hadn’t been that Neal was alive, but that Neal was helping Sophie and Nate pull of what was essential a heist.

Of course, when it was Nate and Sophie asking then it wasn’t a typical heist.

“So,” Eliot asked, putting aside the minutia for later and focused on the current situation. “What’s the plan for getting out of here?”

“Well the plan was, Nate would cause a distraction as I turned off the cameras and Sophie would get you out the side door.” Neal told them. “But, none of us are where we need to be and the blue prints we had are useless, so I’m not even sure there is a side door for us to use.”

“So, let’s just walk out the front door.” Parker said.

Neal and Eliot turned to her. Parker had stood up and was leaning on the wall, letting all her weight rest on her left leg. Eliot was going to have to sit on her if he was going to keep her from hurting her self any further.

“You can’t walk anywhere on that ankle.” Eliot frowned. “Let along through a building full of goons and out the front door.”

“We didn’t plan for any of you being hurt.” Neal frowned. “How bad is it.”

“It’s fine.” Parker said at the same time Eliot and Hardison choired “Bad”

“I can walk.” Parker said taking a step.

She managed to put all her weight on her right foot then quickly took another step to be supported by her let again. Eliot could picture them trying to run down the hall away from bad guys as Parker limped as fast as she could and Hardison refused to leave her side. He grimaced.

“See.” Parker said.

“If you keep doing that you’re going to end up in a cast again.” Eliot threatened.

Parker frowned but it was Neal who responded.

“You won’t have to walk.”

Everyone turned to Neal, even Hardison who was still explaining how to hack to Nate.

“I passed a bunch of offices before I found you. At least three of them had rolling chair and at least one of them is sturdy enough that we can use it as a wheel chair.” Neal explained.

“Right,” Eliot said. Apparently, it was just one bad idea on top of the next today. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes (now picturing them all fleeing with Hardison pushing Parker and she whooped with glee). “Now all we need is an exit plan.”

“Let’s use the roof.” Parker suggested.

This time Eliot did roll his eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS this chapter is dedicated to superlockedgirl who's comment on the last chapter made me drag this out and dust it off.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nate takes care of the computers and the team takes one step closer to freedom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not dead yet X( ;P :D but seriously, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post. (I have 0 free time and when I can sit with my computer and type I'm so tired I cant see straight like rn). Okay that's my spiel/rant/blurb/ravings [whatever] (I'm gonna sleep now) Enjoy the Chapter!!

Nate hid behind a row of servers at the door opened. He watched the silhouette of a man take two steps into the room.

“Où gardent-ils le vin?” The man muttered, and a moment later the door closed.

Nate let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. This plan was getting complicated fast. Over the com he could hear Neal talking with the team.

“Nate, you have your phone, right?” Neal’s asked.

“Of course, I have my phone.” Nate said stepping out from behind the row of servers.

He went over and checked the door, opening it a crack to listen but he couldn’t hear any voices in the hall. Locking the door behind him, he pushed a chair against the door, just in case. There was a rustle of movement over the com, then Hardison’s voice came over the line.

“Hey Nate, okay, so there’s a program on your phone I installed. You’ll find it in your settings it’s an orange square with a stylized AH. The program is called AH Remote.”

Nate opened all his aps and flipped through a few pages before finding the right one. “Okay, I’ve got it.”

The app opened with an orange background and six gray option squares with different symbols.

“Cool right,” Nate could hear Hardison’s smile over the coms. “I set this up to encrypt, decrypt, download, upload, and send viruses all with the tap of a button. It’s not as good as I am, obviously, but it’ll get the job done.”

Nate looked at the buttons. The top two were obviously the upload and download options with arrows pointing up to or down at a line, respectively. The middle two boxes had a picture of a lock and of a key for encrypt and decrypt. The last two boxes didn’t make any kind of sense to Nate.

“What are the horse and smiley face for?” he asked over coms.

“The horse is what you’re going to use to upload a virus to the computers.” Hardison smiled. “Get it, cause it’s a trojan Horse!”

“Okay,” Nate looked around for a cord to link in phone into the computer. “I don’t have a cord to link up my phone.”

“You don’t need one.” Hardison answered. “That’s the beauty of it. It’s a remote, so just point it at the computer and let it do its magic.”

Frowning Nate pointes his phone at the computer and taps the horse icon. The screen goes black for a moment before a loading bar appears with the horse icon prancing over it. A moment later all the lights on the computer server in front of him start flashing. not sure if that’s supposed to happen, Nate mentions it to Hardison.

“Yeah that’s fine.” Hardison answers after a moment. “Is it just the server your standing in front of or is it all of them.”

“Uh,” Nate looks around. “No. Just the one. Wait.”

The server on either side of the one Nate is hacking starts to blink.

“It looks like it’s spreading to the ones around it.” Nate explains.

“What does the loading bar say?”

Nate looks at the prancing horse loading screen. “Two percent. Just switched to three.”

“Cool, it should be done in a minute. When it’s at one hundred percent let me know.”

Nate put his phone down in front of the computer and went to check the hall, but it was empty. He tried to listen to what was going on with Sophie and the rest of the team, but he couldn’t separate the two conversations that were only distant noise over the coms. He went back to the computer and picked up his phone. The load bar was at eighty-seven percent, the horse icon had gotten larger as it pranced across the screen so that now it took up half the page and looked ready to jump out of the phone. The numbers ticked over faster as well and it was only a few more seconds until it his one hundred and the horse reared back on its haunches then galloped into the distance until it was a speck that disappeared. The monitor in front of Nate whizzed and sputtered then went black and silent.

“Uh-mm,” Nate uttered into the sudden silence as all the motors stopped. “Hack is done.”

“Worked like a charm right!” Hardison beamed over the coms. “Parker says we have an exit on the roof. Not sure what she means but she wants you to meet us up there.”

Nate was about to answer when Sophie chimed in, “I need back up.”

“I’m on my way.” Nate answered.

“Uh, what? Wai-” Hardison’s voice cut out before it was replaced.

“I’m going to help Sophie,” Neal said. “Parker needs Nate on the roof.”

“Parker can handle whatever it is without me.” Nate argued, already leaving the computer room and making his way through the halls.

“I need your help Nate.” Parker’s voice was distant over Neal’s com. “Besides, Neal’s a better grifter then you are. He’ll be more help for Sophie.”

He wanted to argue, to say that Sophie needed his help and that Parker and the team could work with Neal, but he held his tongue and thought a moment. It was true that Neal was the better con man and had worked with Sophie on the con before. And they had come to save the team, so his priority should be the team, and he should trust Sophie to figure out the rest with Neal.

“Neal would work better on my end.” Sophie said, as if reading Nate’s thoughts in his silence.

He grimaces. He hated the feeling that twisted his stomach to hear Sophie tell him she didn’t need him. He knew, at least a rational part of him knew, that wasn’t what she meant, but that was what if felt like.

“Fine,” Nate grumbled. “Neal tell the team I’ll meet them on the roof in ten minutes.”

It wouldn’t take him that long but he’d rather give a little extra time then not long enough. He got to the end of the hall and found the stair case as he heard Neal relay the message. Sighing Nate pushed the door to the stairs open and started climbing to the roof.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Last day of Hanukkah (Chaunkah, Hanuka.... honestly you just can't translate it over from the Hebrew because we don't really have letters that are an exact match so I may as well just spell it 'Honka' and you'd still get the point ;D ) This chapter is dedicated to my Jewish followers in general and more specifically to my Jewish roommate who is my test subject for my stories and the reason I first made my AO3 Account. Tiana, the moment you've been waiting for (along with everyone else I'm sure). I hope you enjoy!!!

Sophie graciously allowed the Coronel to lead her back to the banquet hall and tried not to recall the tint of fear that colored Elliot’s voice the one time he’d spoken of the Frenchmen. Garnier was on her other side and that made her feel all the more trapped. But she kept her pace steady and her breathing calm as they chatted about their different charities and other pleasantries.

Just as they turned down the hall for the banquet a security guard came down the hall towards the trio. The guard had quickened his pace when he first caught sight of them, but when his gaze landed on Sophie he faltered a step before finding his composure and continuing at a sedate pace.

“Madame, Messieurs.” The guard gave a slight bow.

The trio all greeted the guard then Garnier turned to Sophie.

“Please excuse me just a moment.” He said with a kiss to her hand. “Just one last piece of business before I can truly relax and enjoy the party.”

Sophie smiled. “Well, we wouldn’t want you to be musing about business when you’re supposed to be wooing all your donors. But promises me I’ll be able to have a moment of your time this evening, there’s much to talk about.”

Garnier let one brow raise slightly and a smile touch his lips. “Madame you may have my entire evening.”

Sophie grinned and let the Coronel lead her away. Once they had stepped away the guard hurriedly whispered something to Garnier and Sophie managed to catch a few words that had her tensing. Then she stepped through the doorway into the cacophony of the banquet hall and lost track of Garnier.

“Madame du’Val,” Coronel Legrand waited for her to turn to him and she realized they he had let her go when they stepped through the door. “I should escort you to your husband and let you enjoy the rest of the party.”

“Oh, my husband couldn’t join me, my brother-in-law was my escort this evening.” Sophie answered looking around for Neal.

“Your husband must be a brave man.” Legrand said and explained when Sophie gave him a look. “Brave to let you attend a party without his watchful gaze.”

Sophie bristled but didn’t let it show. Instead she smiled. “He is the bravest man I know, but has nothing to fear from my attending this banquet without him.”

“Surely a woman of your beauty must have every man following her home.” Legrand pushed.

Now Sophie was sure he was trying to get a rise out of her, so she smiled even sweeter when she answered.

“The men may follow after, but not a single one would last a moment.” She left the statement open-ended, letting Legrand decide if she meant a moment with her husband or with herself.

Legrand noticed the potential of the words and instead of responding he simply smiled and conceded with a tilt of his head. It was in that moment that Neal appeared at Sophie’s elbow.

“Am I interrupting?” Neal asked oozing innocent inquiry, although Sophie knew he’d heard her side of the conversation through coms.

“Not at all.” Legrand answered. “The lady was just putting me in my place.”

“She’s very good at that.” Neal grinned, then as if it were an after thought he introduced himself as Sophie’s brother-in-law (another piece of information he’s gathered listening to coms).

The men traded hand shakes and then Legrand excused himself, “In search of refreshments.”

Sophie huffed out a breath as soon as he was away. “I feel like I need a shower to wash away that man’s evil touch.”

“Soon,” Neal said distractedly as he surveyed the banquet hall. “Right now we need to-“

Neal froze, his shoulders straightened and his eyes went wide as his jaw dropped. Sophie turned to follow his gaze.

“Bloody hell,” She gasped. “What’s he doing here?”

Twenty feet away through the crowd, the two grifters stared in shock as the man in a grey suit with a burgundy tie turned from his partner and caught sight of the duo. It took a moment for the man’s eyes to land on Neal but when they did his expression mimicked Neal’s so completely that Sophie couldn’t help looking between the two trying to find a difference.

The other man recovered before Neal and, with a quick excuse to his partner, wove his way over to Neal and Sophie.

“Neal.” Agent Burke practically hissed, then seemed to lose his words and ended up gaping at his ex-ci.

“Peter,” Neal finally found some semblance his composure. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here, your little friend sent me on a wild goose chase first thing this morning with no explanation. _That’s_ what _I’m_ doing here.” Peter growled. “Do you care to explain what the _hell_ is going on.”

“I didn’t ask Mozie to send you. I have no clue what you’re doing here.” Neal answered, then grinned. “But since you are here, do you want to grab you’re plus one and catch a bad guy. For old time sake.”

“Neal, I swear to god.” Peter bit off what he was saying, then heaved a sigh.

“Peter, I promise you, this isn’t a con.” Neal was all sincerity. “You know I wouldn’t involve you in a con.”

“Oh yes you would.” Peter argued. “But I also know that you’ve been building a new life in Parise and I don’t think you’d ruin that just for one con. So tell me what’s you’re really doing here, and while you’re at it you can explain why you’re here with Sophie Devereaux.”

“Oh, good, I though you hadn’t notice me.” Sophie deadpanned.

“Peter, you know I’d give you a full explanation if there was time.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Peter muttered.

Neal continued with only a head tilt to concede Peter’s point. “But, we’re under a bit of a time crunch and the rest of our team is waiting for our diversion so they can make it to safety.”

“ _Team?”_ Peter bit off the word, glancing at Sophie again as he considered. “No, don’t tell me, I’m sure I know exactly who else is here. Alright, what do you need from me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always if there are any errors they are because I don't bloody proof read my work. Let me know if there are any glaring mistakes and stay tuned for more posts from me in these last few day's of the year.


	14. Chapter 14

“Don’t go to the roof.” Nate’s voice was strained over the coms.

Eliot stopped. They were three floors down from the roof. Hardison was supporting Parker as Eliot took the lead.

“What’s wrong?” Parker asked. “I scouted the roof as an exfil point before we started the con.”

“Well,” Nate sounded out of breath. “They must have put extra security in place.”

There was a scuffle and ‘ouff’ over the mic before Nate continued. “We need a new plan, head to the ground floor.”

“Nate?” Eliot didn’t have to ask out loud is Nate needed help, they knew each other too well at this point.

“I’m fine, just meet up with Neal and Sophie and get out.”

Eliot turned and meet Parker’s then Hardison’s gaze. Both nodded and started heading down the stairs. Turing to the door on this level Eliot ran down the hall towards the South-east side of the building where Nate should be.

“I’m coming to you. Just tell me where.” Eliot said as he ran.

There was a moment of silence and Eliot knew that Nate was trying to work out the best thing for the team, whether it was to have Eliot come to his aid or to stay and protect Parker and Hardison.

“Don’t lie to me, man.” Eliot growled. “I’m coming to get you whether you tell me where you are or I have to hunt you down.”

“Top floor, south-east hall. I lock myself in an office but they’re going to get through the door soon.”

Eliot didn’t bother responding. He could say he’d be there in a few minutes but Nate knew he was on his way. So, he ran, slowing down only enough so he didn’t bang open the stairwell door and alert anyone that he was coming their way. Three floors up he could hear a muffled thud and followed it down a hall. The guards didn’t even turn to acknowledge him, if they even noticed him come up behind them.

The first two went down with in seconds of each other, caught off guard they were unconscious before they hit the floor. The third guard had enough time to turn so he was facing Eliot when the punch connected with his nose. Grabbing at his bloody nose the guard doubled over when the second punch knocked the wind out of him, and an elbow to the back of the head made him join his friends in an impromptu nap party.

Opening the door Nate gave the guards a glance then nodded his thanks to Eliot.

“Let’s go.” Eliot said.

He needed to get back and make sure Parker and Hardison were safe. Eliot lead the way down to the main floor.

“The main door isn’t an option.” Eliot muttered. “We could mix in with the guests.”

“I could bend in, but you, Parker, and Hardison will stand out. Unless someone packed a dress and extra suits.” Nate reasoned.

“Go to the basement.” Neal’s voice came over coms.

Eliot stopped and turned to Nate.

“That’s not going to work.” Nate huffed. “We can’t rely on the blueprints we had.”

“But the city plans are accurate.” Neal argued. “Just get to the basement. If there’s not a way then you’ll just have to make one.”

“What’s that mean?” Eliot asked, but Nate was shaking his head.

“It means Neal is crazy.” Nate muttered. “Can you and Sophie handle things in the ball room?”

“We’ve got a bit of back up.” Sophie said. “This should be rather interesting.”

“How many extra people are we bringing in on this? And where do they keep coming from?”

“I’ll explain later.” Neal said. “Now get to the basement.”

“At least there shouldn’t be guards in the basement.” Parker said over the coms. “What could be interesting down there.”

**

The reception was about to start in earnest. Nearly all the guests had arrived and now slowly made their way to the end of the hall where a stage was set up. Peter shouldered his way past a few patrons, his gaze locked on his date for the evening. Not that it was a date.

If it had really been a date El would be with him. Instead this was starting to feel more like work then a favor for a friend. And he was seriously started to question that favor. Could it really have just been chance that he had taken El on vacation to Nice when she’d been invited to a museum gallery for an exhibit opening.

“Neal.” Peter growled under his breath, shoving the man in front of him harder than necessary.

If Neal wasn’t behind El’s invitation to the gallery opening in Nice that was conveniently the same time as this gala –

“Peter, where did you run off to?”

He hardly realized the crowd had thinned and he’d finally reached Sara’s side.

“I thought you were going to find a drink.” Sara teased, then saw the hard set of his jaw and changed tack. “What’s wrong?”

Peter needed to focus on the problem at hand and worry about who had manipulated him later. He looked at Sara and the words on his tongue died. _Did she know Neal was alive? Had she seen him, talked to him in the past year?_

“Um.” Peter perced his lips debating if he should try to lie, but knew he was an atrocious liar. “I need a favor. Well, not me exactly. Hhh How do I say this.”

Sara raised one eyebrow. “Try starting with who exactly needs a favor.”

Peter sighed. He would just have to say it. “It’s Neal.”

He expected shock, disbelief, maybe even hurt and betrayal. What he got was…

“Oh, for pete sake,” Sara rolled her eyes. “I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay out of trouble. I told him that France was full of temptation and he needed a different hideaway. Tell me he’s not trying to steal something during the gala!”

“You knew he was alive?” Peter couldn’t believe it. “How long?”

“Oh, I ran into him a few months back.” Sara smiled. “We were both working at the Louver and…” She trailed off, blushing. “Anyway, what is he doing here?”

“I don’t know. He’s with Sophie Devereaux and a _team_. They need a distraction.” Peter rolled his eyes. “Apparently, they’re the good guys in all this and the hosts for the gala are the bad guys.”

“So, he told you nothing and wants us to pick up the pieces he drops.” Sara said.

“Yep.”

“Alright, if we’re supposed to catch the bad guys then I think we’ll need a little more back up.” Sara looked around the ballroom. “Leave that to me.”

Sara wove her way through the crowd with ease, stopping to talk with people as she went. Peter smiled, Sara knew just about everyone and could twist them around to her purpose just as well as Neal could. Glancing through the crowd Peter caught a glimpse of Sophie chatting with the chief inspector and added her to the list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for your comments! Although I don't respond to everyone, I do read them all and appreciate every one of you!! Thanks for sticking with me and I'm so glad you're enjoying the story.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was not beta-ed, it is still being written and edited so error will occur, if you find any please let me know. Thanks you and emjoy


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